Believe - Episode 3

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the quiz master began to say. “There we have our contestants in the junior category. They are about to go through two rounds.” He paused to observe both the contestants and the audience.

“The first round is 12 objective questions where they each have 5 seconds to input their answer on the digital screen in front of them. At the end of round 1, the top 3 contestants with the highest score move on to round 2” – he chuckled – “which is the Olympiad 60 seconds of fame.

“In round 2, each contestants will be given 60 seconds to provide answers to questions as much as possible. At the end of round 1 and 2, the two contestants with the highest combined score in both rounds, move to the semifinals.”

The quiz master sighed after the long talk while the audience applauded. All the while, the big screen behind, displayed the name of each contestants with their score in the qualifying examination: Princewill 93%, Anuoluwa 98%, Khalid 89%, Olabode 95%, Abiodun 90%, Ayomide 94%.

Ayomide saw the score of the other students and opened her mouth in awe. She prayed silently that she isn’t disqualified in her first attempt because if otherwise, she knew she would cry her eyes out. She remembered the principal’s word: Courage is fear holding on a minute longer’

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. This gave her the confidence she needed.

“If there is a tiebreak in round 1”, the quiz master continued. “Three questions would be asked from the concerned contestants to break the tie” – he glanced at the contestants to see if they are following what he was saying – “and if there is a tie in round 2, the 60 seconds of fame becomes 30 seconds of fame.

“Note.” He raised his index finger. “Each correct answer gives you 5 marks and also, whatever you score in the tiebreak will not be added to your final score.”

“Contestants, do you understand these rules?”

“Yes quiz master,” they chorused.

“Okay, let’s move on into round one.” The quiz master glanced at the contestants again. He then looked at the digital screen in front of him which the contestants also did. “Question one,” he read out. “By what must 2.412 be multiplied to get 241.2? A 10 B 100 C 1000 D 10000.”

After he read the question, the question was also displayed on the contestant’s digital screen along with a 5-seconds countdown on the top right corner of the screen. Also, options lettered A – D were also displayed below the question. It was the contestants duty to press any option they so desire in 5 seconds, after which they would get a feedback indicating if they were correct or not. A green display indicates a correct answer while a red one means the answer is wrong. After the 5 seconds might have elapsed, the quiz master will tell the correct answer for the sake of the audience. Also, the big screen will indicate the contestants who got it right and those who got it wrong. A green mark in front of a contestant’s name means their answer was correct while a red cross means it was wrong.

“The correct answer is option B,” the quiz master announced after the 5 seconds. “Well done to each and every one of you. You all got that correctly.”

The audience applauded as the big screen displayed a green mark in front of all of their names.

‘This is so simple,’ Ayo thought. ‘But the time is the real deal.’ She looked to her left and saw someone who looked familiar. It was one of the contestants but she can’t remember what the contestants said her name was. Maybe if she knew, she would be able to know who the girl was or if she knew her before. The girl also looked up and their eyes met. Ayo quickly looked away.

“Let’s move on to question number two.” The quiz master’s voice interrupted Ayo’s thought.

Read " Hope " by the same author ( HABEEBLLAH DAMILOLA )

. “The product of …”

Few minutes later.

“I need to say I’m impressed.” The quiz master looked at the digital screen in front of him “Though, there are some of you who have provided wrong answers to one or two questions or even more while some endlessly provided correct answers to every questions. We have two of such.

“Well, let’s see how well our first six contestants performed.” He slide his finger across the screen and just then, the big screen behind displayed the points of the contestants. Both the contestants and the audience looked up to view the points.

The scores were displayed in this order: ‘Princewill 55pts; Anuoluwa 60pts; Khalid 30pts; Olabode 60pts; Abiodun 35pts; Ayomide 55pts.’

The quiz master pressed a part of the digital screen and the names were automatically re-arranged in the order of their points – highest to lowest.

“Do we have a tiebreak?” he asked rhetorically. “Yes we do.” He looked at the digital screen and called, “Anuoluwa and Olabode. Congratulations. Please …”

The audience applauded, thereby interrupting him.

‘Her name is Anuoluwa. Oh! Could it be my Anu? No! It can’t be. Anu doesn’t attend First Apex.’

“Please step back and join us later after the tiebreak”, he completed. “Khalid and Abiodun, I’m sorry to inform you. You didn’t make it to the top 3 and so you’ve been disqualified. Well done and don’t forget, you are winners also.”

Anuoluwa, Olabode, Khalid and Abiodun left the stage afterwards and the tiebreak round began between Ayo and Princewill.